Chris Fullman: Love him. Make him yours.

Retiring This Blog Soon

2009-04-27T04:46:52Z

It’s time to part ways with this site-as-a-blog format I’ve been running for about 8 years (from fullmanator.com till now). I have some plans to splinter my professional blog off to another domain and make this site more personal, more social than I’m used to. Hopefully this move will spark some more ideas on where I can go from here!

When will all this take place? Look for the change, and the farewell-but-not-quite post within the next few months.

All sites change, but people do not.

Catching a Breath

2009-04-05T16:13:44Z

No, this won’t be a full post, but I had to update my blog since SXSW 2009 is long gone.

I had planned on posting a summary of my experience at SXSW 2009, but between work kicking into a busier-than-normal schedule, me behind in personal projects and chores around my home, I haven’t really been in a blogging mood as of late.

I’ll have some news in the upcoming weeks about a few things I’m launching and what I’ll be working on last. As always, the best way to keep track of what I’m up to or what I’m thinking is on Twitter (@chrisfullman). And no, I don’t say what I’m doing all the time, rather brief thoughts, links that I thought were worth sharing and other things.

Until the next update…

Hello, South by Southwest 2009

2009-03-13T04:36:26Z

This afternoon, I’ll be heading to Austin, TX for a little conference called South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive. When I say little, I should probably mention that there will be at least 6,000 people there, with a few thousand more for the other portions (film and music) for good measure.

The first (and previous) time I went to SXSW was in March 2007 where I and a few other team members picked up AgencyNet’s awards for our work on ownyourC.com, attended a collective hundred-plus panels, attended a few sponsored parties and enjoyed the local live music and food. Austin quickly proved itself to become one of my favorite cities, a city I likened to a “much bigger Downtown Fort Lauderdale.” To read about my experience at SXSW 2007, read my 4-part recap.

Should you be attending, feel free to meet some of us from AgencyNet: Joining me will be Augi (who’s also my best friend), Omar, Lindsay, some woman named Larissa… and if our CEO feels better from last weekend’s pneumonia, Richard Lent.

For those of you who’d like to experience SXSW vicariously, I’ll be posting daily updates on AgencyNet’s blog ANidea.com, in addition to tweeting, pictures and video from the rest of the team.

You can contact/locate me while I’m in Austin through the following:

I’ll be returning back home next Tuesday (St. Patty’s day for the drinkers out there), and will post a recap on here shortly after.

Leaving Media Temple for Slicehost

2009-02-25T18:01:44Z

I’ll be moving my server over to Slicehost after Media Temple’s series of unfortunate events (or epic failures). Since I rarely have time to myself outside of exercising and friends, this may take a while.

Why Slicehost? Well, after asking for recommendations on Twitter, I’ve received multiple IMs, SMS, @replies and DMs on Twitter praising their support, prices and hardware.

If you’re looking to leave Media Temple and are interested in checking Slicehost out, use this link.

BarCampMiami 2009

2009-02-23T05:56:01Z

Today I attended BarCampMiami, a free “un-conference” organized by local industry contributors and sponsoring companies, which was also the first BarCamp I’ve attended. This post will be a review ofamy my first impression and some feedback for the organizers, two of whom I personally know, Brian Breslin and Alex de Carvalho.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what a BarCamp is, the blurb on Wikipedia explains it best:

An international network of user generated conferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants. The first BarCamps focused on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies, social protocols, and open data formats. The format has also been used for a variety of other topics, including public transit, health care, and political organizing.

Venue
The venue for this year’s BarCampMiami was at the Anokha Indian restaurant and the beautiful Mayfair Hotel in the heart of Coconut Grove, Miami. The two locations were located across the street from eachother, offering multiple rooms for the various presentations that went on throughout the day; three rooms at Anokha, two rooms at the Mayfair.

Unfortunately there were two small issues that may have caused some confusion with the BarCampMiami attendees:

First, the original location was set for the Adrienne Arsht Cente in Downtown Miami, where Future of Web Applications Miami 2009 (FOWA) was being held the following day. Many of the attendees that flew in for the event may have set that original location as their base, reserving rooms at a hotel around it without much need for transportation during their stay.

As funding proved difficult for this year’s BarCampMiami (again, a free event that relies on sponsors and other financial contributions), the venue was moved to its final location 2 weeks before the event. Still, Miami has a wide array of public transportation via taxis and light rail, so any logistical issues should have remained as mere minor inconveniences.

Second, Anokha moved their location recently, yet their Google Maps location remained in their old location. The BarCampMiami organizers sent out an e-mail the previous day with the location and address, but of course, in any event where attendees are walking by foot, and with the prevalance of iPhones and integrated Google Maps, there were a number of attendees going to an old location. An organizer later made an announcement on Twitter informing attendees of this and left a sign at the old location.

Communication
The communication was as one would expect from a local tech event: Twitter hash tags #bcm09 and #barcampmiami were used before, during and after the event, where any attendee (or the audience that couldn’t attend but wanted to stay up to date) could post updates and monitor. E-mail newsletters and user groups on Facebook and other social networks also contributed to the high level of communication that made staying updated as effortless as possible.

Presentations
BarCampMiami featured a lot of presenters that covered a wide array of topics that ranged from web application development to business development and iPhone applications. WordCamp, a WordPress-focused gathering, was also held at BarCampMiami. I attended WordCamp for the most part.

Unfortunately, here’s my one complaint with the format of BarCamp. Because of the multitude of presentations for the event, there’s a very strict, restricted timeframe… only 20 minutes per presentation (with Q+A included) and 10 minutes to give the attendees time to travel between rooms before the following presentation started. Not only did this cause for every presenter to go over their time limit, causing the following presentation to start late, but it also caused for a very concentrated presentation style. Just when the presentation was starting to get to the meat of the topic, it was time to wrap it up.

Also, in reflection of one of the presentations I saw today, I’ve created what I’ve jokingly called “The 11th Commandment” -

Thou shall not compress a 45-minute presentation into 20 minutes.

- In fact, I don’t think any presenter can actually prepare for a 20-minute presentation, including question and answers, and be able to deliver any substantial information that doesn’t appear as anything other than “just rushing through it.” I hope the next BarCampMiami can allow for more time, or have a selection of voted-by-majority presentations.

With that said, there were two stand-out presentations I found interesting:

BuddyPress
- BuddyPress is a free framework that enhances an existing WordPress MU installation and adds social features that allows anyone to “roll their own” social network. While it doesn’t aim to replace the need or use of Facebook or MySpace (since it imports social actions performed on those sites), it may prove useful for organizations that are looking for a custom social network without using a heavier community platform.
WP Framework
- WP Framework is a bare bones WordPress theme that gives you everything you need to get started on building your next WordPress powered project. WP Framework comes with all the standard WordPress theme logic so you can jump right into building your project specific features.

Wrapping Up
In the end, BarCampMiami was certainly an enjoyable experience that provided me with a good array of information in a single venue and allowed me to reconnect with a few former colleagues and students from The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale in addition to finally meeting local Twitter users in person that I’ve only talked to online before now. I’ll definitely attend the next BarCampMiami as not only a visitor but a volunteer/contributor as well.

Special thanks to all of those who made this year’s BarCampMiami possible. For more information, visit BarCampMiami.org and RefreshMiami.org

Six Degrees of Happiness

2009-02-16T05:06:58Z

My BFF’s wife Meli tagged me in a post on her new blog Melificent.com, and so I figured it’d give me a good reason to update my blog as well.

For some reason, I thought I’d get away from memes forever since leaving LiveJournal years ago, but they’ve oddly come back with a vengaence on Facebook and Twitter. I don’t think I’ll make this a regular thing on my blog, but if the meme is sound enough to make a post about it, then I’ll go ahead with the thing.

So here we go, six things that make me happy, in no particular order whatsoever…

AgencyNet

The AgencyNet office has become a home away from home for me, and my co-workers have become my family… albeit an extended family. Sure, there are some cousins in there I might not always get along with, and like family, we’re entitled to fight from time to time… when you spend enough time with them, they’re bound to get on your nerves. But, for the most part, I genuinely enjoy my job, and being able to work with my sister and my best friend, Augi.

Augi

It’d seem odd that I’d single out my best friend Augi when I only have six items to choose from, but truth be told, I love that I get the chance to work with and see him 5 out of 7 days of the week, at the minimum. We’ve known eachother since September of 2001 when we met at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale for photography class, and through my group of friends, we’ve gotten closer through the years. When he got married to Meli, we all grew into a bigger family, and I couldn’t be happier with the family I have now!

My Family

My family makes me happy, and while I only really see my sister (rather, also my coworker and current roommate) for the most part, my parents are always there when I need them. They’re always 5 miles from home, work around the corner from my office, and remind me they’re there even though they know they don’t have to. My grandpa, aunt and uncle and cousins are also pretty close, and while I don’t get the chance to see my dad’s family out in California, the time we spend together is always cherished. My grandma is even a frequent reader of this blog!

My Friends

I’ve been blessed to have such a tight, small group of great friends instead of a larger group of “see them every once and a while” friends others have, and we spend as much time together at parties, BBQs, game nights, after-work hangouts and other events as possible. They’ve even become instrumental in supporting my new diet/workout plan, even if it means I can’t make it to a spontaneous evening outing, and are a great help when I may be tempted by the now-unwelcome food choices I encounter.

Ripley

I got my puppy Ripley when she was 13 weeks and before my first anniversary in my condo. She’s grown from a terribly high-maintenance training chore to a loyal friend. She has a few quirks that we still have to work through, but she’s never happy being in a separate room from me when I’m around. When I get up, she gets up, unconditionally. True story: Ripley was named after Sigourney Weaver’s character in the Alien series after seeing the stitches on her belly from being spayed.

Science Fiction

Whether it’s Star Trek, Star Wars, Smallville, Supernatural, Lost, The X-Files or the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica – which is arguably considered the best science fiction series by many critics and myself – I can always count on a quick distraction into a world that could-be. It doesn’t take a nerd to look to the future (even if the future isn’t as polished and utopian as we’d like), all it takes is one with an imagination and time to get away. It’s certainly something I can share with some of my closest friends and family… for those who like sci-fi. In fact, I’m in the process of writing my own science fiction trilogy… I just need to find the time to focus on it. Since that’s one of my 2009 New Year’s Resolutions, I’m already on my way.

But that’s where the tagging ends. Chances are everyone I would tag, should I actually want to tag, has already been tagged about 20 times already just for this meme, so I’ll spare everyone the tagging.

So Long PC, I’ve Gone Mac

2009-02-04T02:01:16Z

Since I was 10, I remember building PCs with my dad, collecting miscellaneous parts like motherboards, video cards, hard drives to CD-ROMs, RAM and CPU (either Intel or AMD) and putting them together. Often times, we’d cut our fingers on the computer’s chassis, battle scars for the computer we’d enjoy when it was complete. We built these computers for friends, trying out new configurations and vendors, happy with the knowledge of building something that would help us work, learn and play.

Then we stopped building and started buying; HP, Compaq, Sony and Dell, they were welcomed along with the lack of injuries and the backing of warranty support.

I’ve been a PC kid for almost 17 years now, an Amiga kid before that, and I know the ins and outs of PCs. I can troubleshoot, replace and fix just about anything.

But now it was time to move on from all that, and with my tax refund, I purchased my first Mac this weekend, the new MacBook. I’d been waiting for my chance for a few years but they were always out of reach, both financially and logistically in migrating over to a vastly-different platform.

Many attribute my stubbornness to adopt the Mac platform earlier to an unfounded hate, but that’s simply not true. I’ve worked with them without any hesitation both in school and at work, I just decided that unless Apple significantly reduced the prices of their products, or unless I had enough money to justify the purchase, I wouldn’t buy anything from Apple.

Business-wise, it made sense to back PCs. You could do the same work and achieve the same results with a PC with a significant financial savings. Given the choice to outfit my company’s employees with computers and knowing the budget we’d need to have, PCs were the first option for quite a long time.

Last July, I sat in line to get my first iPhone, waiting for the 3G model I knew was coming out shortly after the first generation. It was my first bite of the Apple, so to speak, only having received iPods before as gifts. I was immediately appreciative of the effort that went into the product, and was impressed and smitten with the interface and overall functionality of the mesh of hardware and software.

So I did it, I got my MacBook, and not even 5 days into my experience, I couldn’t be happier with my choice. I could install Windows and run it without issue should I need to, and I’m actually intending on installing Windows 7 to try it out, and can finally start tinkering around with iPhone application development.

I still believe in Microsoft’s goal to get computers on every desk in every corner of the world, and they’ve done a great job so far, and I’m confident they’ll continue to push computers into areas not yet influenced by technology.

But I became frustrated with Microsoft’s apparently comfort in platform dominance, and when Vista was delayed time and time again with their lofty goals in features being slowly stripped out, all while Apple was pushing out new tools and software that are still easing into the daily computing tasks, I thought about switching platforms.

Windows wasn’t the only victim of scope creep, Internet Explorer lay dormant for years without any active development, forcing other developers to try to fix the problem. Only until Firefox began picking up a market share in internet browsing, there were no goals on Microsoft’s behalf to create a better tie between the operating system and the internet as we know it.

Does this mean I won’t go back to using a PC? Not at all. I’m currently on one at work for the foreseeable future, and will continue to use them wherever they are available.

But for now, my primary computer for home is my MacBook, and I couldn’t be happier.

Now, Mac users: If you use any programs or utilities that you think I’d benefit from, let me know in the comments and I’ll check them out! So far, I’m using Firefox w/ Google Gears, Growl, Versions, iChat, iTunes, Cover Sutra, Destroy Twitter, Coda and CSSEdit.

Improvements in Gaming Consoles Came From PCs

2009-01-27T02:44:00Z

Growing up through the 90s, my console of choice was my PC. I didn’t get a Nintendo, a PlayStation or Sega whatever to enable my procrastination in homework or chores. In fact the first console I owned was the XBOX as part of a Speakeasy promotion for getting DSL service back in 2002.

I’ve owned every Tomb Raider game in the series for PC with the exception of Tomb Raider: Legend (which, in my opinion, is easily the best in the series), I’ve owned Final Fantasy VII and VIII (when they made the short-lived leap to PC). Countless Star Trek titles from games to interactive technical manuals and a handful of hella-advanced-for-their-time Commodore 64 titles.

But where did the shift in improvements originate?

With any software title, there’s a round of aggravating bugs that not only detract from the gaming experience, but often cause obstacles preventing the progress or resolution of the game. Us gamers would agonize over tips from other aggravated players at software publisher’s forums, technical support knowledge bases or on the line with a clueless representative who did nothing but apologize for our inconvenience.

Sooner than later, we were blessed with a patch, a downloadable executable that would automagically fix our reported issues with the game. We hoped. Most of the time it worked, sometimes it didn’t, waiting for the next patch, or even worse, the fact that the publisher might not release any other patches for the title, claiming their work was done before moving on to the sequel or next title.

Fans of Tomb Raider will know the issues that hounded The Angel of Darkness, the sixth in the series. The game was repeatedly pushed back because of production delays and internal conflicts and the product launch was plagued with bugs, angry fans and patching requirements, including the console versions. This disastrous launch prompted publisher Eidos to move the franchise’s development from the original studio Core Design to Crystal Dynamics.

Fast forward to today, I have a PlayStation 3 and am enjoying impressive titles like Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, LittleBigPlanet and a number of downloadable games from the PlayStation Network. All of these titles have had at least one downloadable patch, sometimes 2-3, often adding additional functionality that went beyond the sellable talking points that were printed on the box or listed in the original download summary.

So what happened to the old practice of “launch, even if we’re not on schedule or the product is below our QA standards?”

Console makers realized the power in automated updating from computer operating systems like Windows and OS X. They realized that sending out a software title that consumers would purchase needed to have immediate issues resolved in order to prevent negative reception, further complicating future titles in a franchise or potential franchise.

Updates such as these came to the XBOX 360 console and later to PlayStation 3, and therefore severed the old business practice of build/sell/fix immediate issues/move-on and moved gaming to the new business practice of build/sell/learn/improve/proceed.

Aside from automatic patches for games, the console’s operating system also received major updates from the same update system, often adding major overhauls to certain functionality while introducing new feature sets and interoperability between the platform and its network, including functionality that compliments or succeeds computers for common tasks; tasks such as media playback/recording, digital content purchasing, gaming subscriptions (scheduled downloadable content), web browsing, networking and remote device interactivity.

So the next time you power up your next-generation gaming console, take a moment to appreciate how the PC made many features you take for granted possible. Then, by all means, frag away!

Why I Switched to WordPress

2009-01-26T06:32:37Z

I had originally written a (really, really) long post to explain why I’ve switched, but decided that I should just make this post really short instead — and promptly deleted the remainder of this post to start over.

Many of you who know me know I’ve been an avid user of Movable Type since I started blogging on my own site (and away from LiveJournal) since 2001. I’ve upgraded every time they announced a new version, participated in beta testing and even tried my hand at writing a plugin for a client project we launched almost two years ago.

I was so comfortable with the platform that I resisted switching to anything else for years.

So why did I switch to WordPress? Here’s a quick list…

It just works
No more fiddling with annoying Perl builds and Perl modules, cgi-bins and random permissions issues where part of the application would just not work because a permission was amiss after an update. No more fiddling with FastCGI to try to get the whole experience a little faster, no more having FastCGI/Perl run out of memory and take down the server with it, no more having to lock-down tagging access because search engine bots were killing my server performance by causing Movable Type to constantly perform lookups. WordPress just installs, and provided you have a modern hosting provider, there’s little you have to do to get it working out of the box. Not to mention, the “Famous 5-Minute Install” is pretty generous. The longest part is waiting for all the application files to intially upload to the server.

FTP goes away after the first upload
The native in-place automatic upgrade and plug-in update system automagically takes care of the nitty-gritty work without the need for FTP clients and uploading the same files over and over again.

The new 2.7 user interface is amazing
From the sleek, collapsible and ever-present sidebar, everything you need is in one navigation bar, and the expandable/collapsible sections remain persistent across sessions. The unified interface theme even crosses into plugin configuration screens (for the most part), and that speaks volumes for a unified user experience. It’s lightweight, responsive and downright fast.

Did I say fast?
No, I really mean fast. The native, integrated Google Gears support lets me cache certain files that the CMS needs, and that cuts down on the requests for the browser to handle when loading CMS pages. Nice.

Excellent iPhone support that’s going to get better
I love that, with the WordPress native iPhone application, I can upload multiple photos from my iPhone and work on local drafts without publishing to the server first. Oh, multiple photos, as in not having to rely on Flickr and the iPhone’s odd one-picture-per-email limitation to post to my blog, or the odd inability to upload photos through a web version of the blogging CMS. The next version of the WordPress iPhone application will add comment and page support, which makes it even better. This will make mobile blogging much more feasible, especially for SXSW in March.

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell. Have I given up on Movable Type? Not at all. I’m excited to see what the next iteration of MT will bring, especially with the community support their open source project is allowing, especially with the forthcoming Motion product. I’m still planning on using MT for one other project, but time will tell. I’ve played in both sandboxes for years with both work and setting up friends’ blogs, so I can continue to play in the same two sandboxes for the next few years.

ChrisFullman.com: Now With WordPress 2.7

2009-01-24T21:24:25Z

I’ve switched to Wordpress 2.7 from Movable Type 4.2. I’ll be posting my thoughts on why (since a lot of you will be asking) a little later.

RSS/Email subscribers: Sorry if you see a bunch of older posts. I wish it didn’t happen that way, but that’s how it goes with changes like this.